Lee County commissioners vote 3-2 to pay $40 per mile to remove Hurricane Ian debris, up from 5 cents a mile
MIAMI - The Lee County Commission on Tuesday voted 3-2 to approve a contract to hike the rate to haul debris left behind by Hurricane Ian out of the county from 5 cents a mile to $40 a mile.
Commissioners Mike Greenwell, Cecil Pendergrass and Ray Sandelli voted in favor of the contract while Commissioners Brian Hamman and Kevin Ruane voted against.
"I'm going to vote against the motion," Hamman said. "I don't feel comfortable with the way it's gone down."
Lee County Attorney Richard Wesch told commissioners their vote was meaningless, because County Manager Roger Desjarlais had already signed the contract with CrowderGulf on Oct. 2 under emergency powers granted to him by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
"Your action today is largely ministerial in nature," Wesch told commissioners before they voted. "So if you decline to ratify, that action would in all likelihood have no legal significance."
County staff did not address several key questions, including why the county was not holding CrowderGulf to their current contract, which is valid until May 2023.
They argued the overall contract makes sense financially, but admitted that is based on several assumptions, including which landfill they will use.
Solid Waste Director Doug Whitehead said the county intends to take the debris to a Charlotte County landfill, which is three miles away, but did not rule out having to use the landfill in DeSoto County, which is 50 miles away, as more debris is collected. He confirmed that they have been in discussions with the DeSoto landfill, as first reported by CBS News Miami.
He also admitted taking the debris to DeSoto would significantly add to the cost to taxpayers, but said the county would try and find solutions to the high price with CrowderGulf.
The rate increase for hauling the debris could end up costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars in added fees, with the federal government likely picking up the bill.
CBS News Miami has obtained emails, text messages and other records which show that the company in line to be given the contract – CrowderGulf – has added costs and services in other areas, as well, including the removal of debris from private property and waterways.
All of these changes come at a time when CrowderGulf has an existing contract with Lee County that runs through May 2023. That contract, however, would likely not be nearly as profitable for CrowderGulf as the one the Lee County Commission is ready to vote on Tuesday. If approved, that new, potentially more expensive contract would take effect immediately. Lee County did not directly respond to questions as to why they would not enforce their existing contract with CrowderGulf until it expired in May, saying only the county "wanted to maintain continuity of operations throughout a long storm response."
No single line item is more emblematic of the change than line "A4" which raises the rate to transport debris outside of Lee County from five cents per mile to $40.
Because of the devastating effects of Hurricane Ian, millions of cubic yards of debris will have to be hauled away. By some estimates that number could be as much as 10 million cubic yards in Lee County alone.
A spokeswoman for the county wrote, in response to a question from CBS News Miami: "Estimates vary dramatically, as we are still in the beginning of this process, and much will depend on how much construction and demolition debris ultimately is picked up and how much CPDR is approved for reimbursement. But our current estimates for unincorporated Lee County are closer to one-third of your example" of 10 million cubic yards.
Because the Lee County landfill is currently unable to handle the debris, most of it will have to be driven, by truck, to landfills outside of Lee County.
CBS News Miami has learned Lee County officials are in discussions with Desoto Recycling and Disposal to take their storm debris. "There have been some communications on that," said Leonard Meyer, the manager of Desoto Recycling and Disposal. He said he has been speaking to Douglas Whitehead, the Solid Waste Director for Lee County.
Whitehead did not respond to phone messages, text messages and emails seeking his comment.
The DeSoto landfill is 50 miles outside of Lee County.
A spokeswoman for Lee County refused to say where they will be hauling their debris, responding in an email: "The county will use multiple final disposal sites."
Physically hauling away debris is one of the most time-consuming and logistically challenging parts of any hurricane cleanup and requires a seemingly non-stop cycle of trucks from the devastated areas to the nearby landfills.
The average truck, for instance, only holds approximately 100 cubic yards of debris.
If Lee does use the landfill in DeSoto County, for every million cubic yards of debris hauled away, Crowder Gulf will need to make at least 10,000 trips to the landfill. At $40 a mile, for 50 miles, each million cubic yards of debris could cost American taxpayers $20 million.
Under their existing contract, where they can only charge five cents a mile, CrowderGulf would only be permitted to charge taxpayers $25,000.
And that is just for mileage.
Under the proposed contract they also charge for collecting, processing and loading the debris onto the trucks. They also get to charge rental fees to the county for every piece of equipment they use – bulldozers, cranes, and backhoes. They get separate fees for removing refrigerators, washing machines and dryers, as well as boats.
Cecil Pendergrass, the chairman of the Lee County Commission, declined to discuss the contract and referred all questions to county administrators.
"We are declining your interview request," Betsy Clayton, the spokesperson for Lee County, wrote in an email.
In a statement to CBS News Miami, she wrote the county is moving forward with the CrowderGulf contract with the higher rates to "ensure the county's contractor could attract collection assets to the area with competitive subcontractor rates."
Clayton claimed the "collection and disposal costs in the new contract range from 4.6% to 10.6% higher than the 2017 contract prices, while inflation during that period totaled 21.8%."
Clayton did not respond to questions as to how the added mileage cost would affect the overall cost of the project, since the mileage rate was going up by 80,000% under the new contract.
Lee County Manager Roger Desjarlais did not respond to emails seeking his comment.
In a memo issued to Lee County commissioners, Whitehead, the director of solid waste in Lee County, wrote CrowderGulf was selected following an open bid process that began in August, in which other companies were also evaluated and a selection committee recommended Crowder prior to Hurricane Ian making landfall.
A review of the bid documents by CBS News Miami, however, reveals several questions about the process. First, the bid appears to have downplayed the possibility of having to haul debris outside of Lee County by giving that item less weight than other factors. Therefore, the fact that Crowder would charge $40 a mile did not have a significant impact on their bid. By comparison, the other bidders on the contract had a mileage rate significantly lower – between $15 and $21 a mile.
Also, the original bid did not include debris removal from private property and from waterways. Yet in the contract going before the county commission, those services were now added post-Ian without the opportunity to determine if the prices Crowder are charging for them are appropriate or could have been done by another company at a lower cost.
Asked why they added private property and waterway cleanup to the contract after the storm, Lee spokeswoman Clayton, wrote: "We added to the scope based on the unprecedented level of destruction in Southwest Florida and on what was seen in Michael to ensure the county was prepared for a catastrophic event such as Ian with pre-negotiated rates. Having this done as a standby contract has been communicated as a best practice by FEMA and FDEM. That said, we are currently only picking up debris on public rights-of-way or on private roads with a current Right of Entry.
It is not clear from her response why the original bid documents did not include private property and waterway cleanup or why an expedited bid process could not be used to get a better rate for taxpayers.
The president of CrowderGulf, Ashley Ramsay-Naile, declined to be interviewed, responding in a text message: "As you can imagine, everyone is laser-focused on the response and recovery efforts. To ensure that information is accurate and to streamline communications, all media inquiries are being handled by the Lee County team."
Asked specifically about the $40 a-mile charge in the new contract, Ramsay-Naile did not respond.
CrowderGulf is also working in other areas hit by Hurricane Ian. CBS News Miami reviewed their 2017 contract with the nearby city of Punta Gorda in neighboring Charlotte County. CrowderGulf is currently clearing debris in Punta Gorda and charging them a rate of approximately $11 a mile to haul debris out of Charlotte.